Dr. Condoleezza Rice Discusses Iraq in Chicago
As Prepared for Delivery
Remarks by Condoleezza Rice Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations
Chicago, Illinois

Thank you for having me here today. It is an honor to speak at the
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations -- an institution with a proud
history spanning eight decades. I am a strong supporter of
institutions like CCFR, that bring together citizens from all
backgrounds to discuss and debate issues that affect the security of
our nation.

And I'm pleased to be in Chicago at this moment of great hope in
the City of Big Shoulders. For the first time since 1908, the Chicago
Cubs have won a post-season series. As you say in Chicago, any team
can have a bad century. But it looks as though the 21st Century might
be a little brighter for the Cubs than the 20th.

It has been more than two years since the September 11th attacks --
and it is worth taking a moment to reflect and report on the strategy
that America has pursued in responding to that awful day.

No less than December 7th, 1941, September 11th, 2001 forever
changed the lives of every American and the strategic perspective of
the United States. That day produced an acute sense of our
vulnerability to attacks hatched in distant lands, that come without
warning, bringing tragedy to our shores. And it compelled us to take a
fresh look at an old threat.

For twelve years, Saddam Hussein sat in the heart of the world's
most volatile region, defying more than a dozen UN Security Council
resolutions, terrorizing his people, threatening his neighbors, and the
world.

Saddam Hussein twice launched unprovoked invasions of his
neighbors. After losing a war of aggression that he began, Saddam's
threatening posture toward other Gulf nations -- and his continued
oppression of his people -- required the United States and the United
Kingdom to maintain a massive military presence in the Gulf, and patrol
two vast no-fly zones for a dozen years. Saddam is the only tyrant of
our time not only to possess weapons of mass destruction ... but to use
them in acts of mass murder. And he maintained ties to terror,
harboring known terrorists within his borders, and subsidizing
Palestinian suicide bombers.

September 11th made clear our enemies' goals, and provided painful
experience of how far they are willing to go to achieve them. From
their own boasts, we know that they would not hesitate to use the
world's most terrible weapons to bring devastation to our shores. In
fact, they would welcome it. This threat is potentially so
catastrophic -- and can arrive with so little warning, by means that are
untraceable -- that it cannot be contained.

We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the
September 11th attacks. Yet the possibility remained that he might use
his weapons of mass destruction or that terrorists might acquire such
weapons from his regime, to mount a future attack far beyond the scale
of 9/11. This terrible prospect could not be ignored or wished away.

President Bush put it this way: "Some have said we must not act
until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants
announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they
strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all
actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late.
Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a
strategy, and it is not an option."

When the President went to the United Nations in September, 2002,
there was little controversy about the nature of the threat posed by
Saddam Hussein. The intelligence agencies of most governments agreed
on Saddam's capabilities and appetites. The United Nations and other
international organizations had -- again and again -- documented Saddam's
aggressions against his neighbors, tortures of the Iraqi people, and
violations of international law. The UN Security Council passed
resolution after resolution -- 17 in all -- laying out Saddam's
obligations to the world, and demanding that he comply or face the
consequences.

The Security Council was right to do so. And President Bush was
right to lead a coalition of nations to enforce the Security Council's
clear resolutions, to uphold the credibility of the United Nations, and
to defend the peace of the world.

Remember the clear logic of Resolution 1441 -- which passed
unanimously. 1441 posed a test -- a final test -- of Saddam Hussein's
willingness to disarm and comply with his obligations. Saddam Hussein
refused to meet that test. 1441 mandated serious consequences if Iraq
refused to comply. A coalition of nations ensured that these would not
be empty words.

Increasingly, the killing fields are yielding up their dead. The
mass graves are being discovered. The Iraq Survey Group is finding --
and recording -- proof that Iraq never disarmed, and never complied with
UN inspectors.

We now have hard evidence of facts that no one should ever have
doubted. Right up until the end, Saddam Hussein continued to torture
and oppress the Iraqi people. Right up until the end, Saddam Hussein
lied to the Security Council. And -- let there be no mistake -- right up
until the end, Saddam Hussein continued to harbor ambitions to threaten
the world with weapons of mass destruction, and to hide his illegal
weapons programs.

Let me read you a passage from the progress report that David Kay
-- head of the Iraq Survey Group -- submitted to Congress last week:

"We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and
significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United
Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery
of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through
the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information
they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment
and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared
to the UN."

The ISG has confirmed many activities that we already knew about,
including Iraq's massive deception campaign to conceal its weapons
programs, and its maintenance of prohibited delivery systems. The ISG
has also uncovered some information that appears to corroborate reports
that Iraq tested chemical and biological substances on human beings.

And the ISG continues to find evidence of activities that the
United States did not know about before the war. For example, the ISG
has so far found -- and I quote

"Clandestine attempts between late-1999 and 2002 to obtain from
North Korea technology related to 1,300 km range ballistic
missiles."

"Research on a possible VX stabilizer, research and development
for chemical weapons capable munitions, and procurement,
concealment of dual use materials and equipment."

These are only the highlights of a statement that runs more than
six thousand words. Iraq was required to declare all of these
activities to the UN -- but instead deliberately concealed them and
deceived the inspectors. Had any one of these examples been discovered
last winter, the Security Council would have had no choice but to take
exactly the same course that President Bush followed: to declare Saddam
Hussein in defiance of Resolution 1441, and enforce its serious
consequences.

It is worth reflecting on the alternative to action. Had 1441 --
and the sixteen other resolutions -- not been enforced, the credibility
of the United Nations would have been in tatters. The effectiveness of
the Security Council as an instrument of enforcing the will of the
world, and of keeping the peace, would have been weakened.

Saddam would have remained in power -- with all that entails: More
mass graves, more children in prison, and more daily depredations of
the Iraqi people.

And Saddam would have remained -- indefinitely -- poised in the heart
of the Middle East, sitting atop a potentially deadly arsenal of
terrible weapons, threatening his neighbors and the world. For twelve
years, Saddam gave every indication that he would never disarm and
never comply with the Security Council's just demands. There was no
reason to believe that waiting any longer for him to change his mind
would yield results.

Those who question the wisdom of removing Saddam Hussein from
power, and liberating Iraq, should ask themselves:

How long should Saddam Hussein have been allowed to torture the
Iraqi people?

How long should Saddam Hussein have been allowed to remain the
greatest source of instability in one of the world's most vital
regions?

How long should Saddam Hussein have been allowed to provide
support and safe-haven to terrorists?

How long should Saddam Hussein have been allowed to defy the
world's just demand to disarm?

How long should the world have closed its eyes to the threat that
was Saddam Hussein?

Let us be clear: those were the alternatives to action.

But President Bush -- and Tony Blair, and John Howard, and
Aleksander Kwasniewski, and Jose Maria Aznar, and other leaders --
resolved to take action. Because they did, Saddam Hussein is gone. He
will never again use weapons of mass destruction, and his support for
terrorism is over. Saddam's torture chambers, and rape rooms, and
children's prison cells, are closed. The war on terror is greatly
served by the removal of this source of instability in the world's most
volatile region.

The people of Iraq are free, and working toward a self-government.
Step by step, normal life in Iraq is being reborn, as basic services
are restored -- in some cases for the first time in decades. Throughout
the country, schools and hospitals are being rebuilt. Banks are
opening and a new currency -- without Saddam Hussein's picture -- is
being prepared.

America's service men and women, working with Iraqis and coalition
forces, are helping to usher in these improvements. Our troops in
Baghdad and other cities are operating under difficult conditions.
Baathist dead-enders, Fedayeen fighters, and foreign terrorists
continue to attack coalition forces, innocent Iraqis, and symbols of
progress. As President Bush has said, Iraq is now the central front in
the war on terror. Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand
there, and there they must be defeated.

The building of a new Iraq provides a new opportunity for a
different kind of Middle East. Today, the 22 countries of this vital
region have a combined population of 300 million -- but a combined GDP
less than that of Spain. It is a region suffering from what leading
Arab intellectuals call a political and economic "freedom deficit".
And it is a region where hopelessness provides a fertile ground for
ideologies that convince promising youths to aspire not to a university
education, a career, or a family, but to blowing themselves up --
taking as many innocent lives with them as possible. These ingredients
are a recipe for great instability and pose a direct threat to
America's security.

Working in full partnership with the peoples of the region who
share our commitment to human freedom, the United States and our
friends and allies can help build a Middle East where hope triumphs
over bitterness ... where greater political and economic freedom, and
better, more modern education encourage people to reject the path of
terror, and instead fully join in the progress of our times. A free,
democratic, and successful Iraq can serve as a beacon, and a catalyst,
in this effort.

And a free, successful Iraq can help create new momentum toward a
lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and set in motion
progress toward the realization of the vision President Bush outlined
on June 24th, 2002: two states living side by side in peace and
security.

Terrorists in the Palestinian territories have lost the patronage
of Saddam Hussein. Other regimes in the region have been given clear
warning that support for terror will not be tolerated. Without this
outside support for terrorism, Palestinians who are working for reform
and long for democracy will, over the long term, be strengthened, and
encouraged.

The appeal of terror is still strong -- as we saw last Saturday in
Haifa, when 19 people innocently enjoying a Sabbath lunch were
murdered. The Palestinian Authority must to do its utmost to dismantle
the terrorist infrastructure in its midst. A Palestinian state must be
a reformed and peaceful state that abandons forever the use of terror.

Israel will be expected to support the creation of a viable and
territorially contiguous Palestinian state and fulfill its
responsibilities to do so. Israel should dismantle outposts, improve
the lives of the Palestinian people and end settlement activity. And
the Arab states will be expected to oppose terrorism, support the
emergence of a peaceful and democratic Palestine, and state clearly
they will live in peace with Israel.

The Middle East is a region of tremendous potential. Yet achieving
real transformation in the Middle East will require a commitment of
many years. It will require America and our allies to engage broadly
throughout the region, across many fronts, including diplomatic,
economic, and cultural.

We must remain patient. Our own history should remind us that the
union of democratic principle and practice is always a work in
progress. When the Founding Fathers said "We the People," they did not
mean me. My ancestors were considered three-fifths of a person.

Knowing the difficulties of America's own history, we should always
be humble in singing freedom's praises. But America's voice should
never waver in speaking out on the side of people seeking freedom.

The people of the Middle East share the desire for freedom. We
have an opportunity - and an obligation -- to help them turn this desire
into reality. And we must work with others to create a world where
terror is shunned and hope is the provenance of every living human.
That is the strategic challenge -- and moral mission -- of our time.